the life of traffic police..

[stooz]

www.phil.hicks.btinternet.co.uk/witloato/witloato.htm

an interesting read.

[tonyrec]

Interesting read.

[Peter Ward]

Fascinating. It's interesting to see how much he applies his discretion to situations. I guess therefore that we have to trust him when he books people for 40 in 30 limit, but doesn't book a lady who turns out in front of a car and causes an accident.

[bluementhol]

I thought the site counter at the bottom was taking the piss.

'You are visitor number 999'

[r32]

Although he seems to be pretty sensible regarding some of his speeding stops, there isn't any mention on any day of stopping (or even looking out for) bad driving

[TonyOut]

Liked the way he just shrugs off the biker with a flip up numberplate... Gives me an idea

[streaky]

phil hicks said:

I am tasked to patrol the A21 from Hastings Sea Front to Kent a distance of about 30 miles during the Golden Hours of 7 to 9 when most Traffic is on the road and our collision history shows we are more likely to have a Road Traffic Collision because of the high volume of traffic.

So NOT because of speeding drivers then!

phil hicks said:

[She] alleges high speed. I explain that it is a 60 mph limit and that the marks on the road indicate that he was probably doing about 50 mph when he began to skid. I then ask her to estimate the speed of several cars traveling on the road and I check them with the SpeedAce speed detection device. It shows that she is about 10 mph out on her speed perception.

Good job no-one has empowered her to act as an "expert witness" then!

phil hicks said:

Speed check on a amber site (crash history with injury reported) in a residential area where there is a park and play ground. Two ticketed for speed one of whom gets upset till I advise him that if he couldn’t see me 200 meters away at 6’8” in a yellow coat then a child would stand no chance.

I tend to agree with him.

phil hicks said:

Try again for the base and this time it is a crash, Cyclist knocked down ... Arrive at scene and find that it was a drunk falling over an abandoned wreck of a mountain bike.

Breathalysed? Booked? Now, if it had been a motorist (not that I approve of drink driving).

Just comments.

Streaky

[tonyrec]

As has been said on here many times before, the nice thing about a Police Officer is that theres a very good chance that they will use their own discretion.

I know for a fact that people at work deal differently with some things than i would do......we are all different, after all

[barry sheene]

tonyrec said:

As has been said on here many times before, the nice thing about a Police Officer is that theres a very good chance that they will use their own discretion.

All the more shame then in the last few years (as reported by MCN last week) the numbers of dedicated traffic officers in the UK has fallen from 90,000 to 3000. A bloody disgrace.

[tonyrec]

I can certainly back that one up..its a complete disgrace, especially now they are training up those 'Road Wardens'.

In fact, its affecting most departments and possibly the most important, Core Policing.

I must say that, MCN are very good at reporting these things

[rospa]

barry sheene said:

tonyrec said: As has been said on here many times before, the nice thing about a Police Officer is that theres a very good chance that they will use their own discretion. All the more shame then in the last few years (as reported by MCN last week) the numbers of dedicated traffic officers in the UK has fallen from 90,000 to 3000. A bloody disgrace.

Do you happen to have a link to that article?

[barry sheene]

rospa said:

Do you happen to have a link to that article?

No it's in hardcopy. Last weeks issue, a full 2 page spread.

This week is good too, anoher article on why the BiB are ignoring deisel spills......

MCN website is
www.motorcyclenews.com/

but they usually don't put the full articles on the website

[barry sheene]

Oh, and the week before that that had a 2 page spread explaining exactly why the scameras are sited in the wrong place...

They do seem to be right on top of these issues ATM.

Here's a link to that story
www.motorcyclenews.com/news/detail?sectionID=50677&documentID=191333

which isn't that same as the hard copy version as the online story just points to the safespeed site.


>> Edited by barry sheene on Thursday 4th March 11:42

[misternomer]

I only hope all traffic bill are as dedicated and level-headed as Phil. I'm blown away by the dedication he shows to his work, to public service and to building a fantastic site.


I think some of the comments have been a bit sniffy and pedantic. How about a round of applause for this guy?

[safespeed]

[quote=barry sheene]Oh, and the week before that that had a 2 page spread explaining exactly why the scameras are sited in the wrong place...

... which isn't that same as the hard copy version as the online story just points to the safespeed site.

The full article is on the Safe Speed page so linked as two PDFs.

www.safespeed.org.uk/rules.html

Best Regards,
Paul Smith
Safe Speed
www.safespeed.org.uk